Burning Amp 2018

Burning Amp is a day-long celebration of many hours spent designing, building, tweaking, and ultimately listening to music with home-brew audio electronics. The diyaudio community is global, but they choose to meet in San Francisco. Last Sunday was the day.

Not only was there a lot of interesting equipment to see and listen to, there are also a number of luminaries from the audio world who come and contribute their wisdom and designs to the community. Notable among these are Roger Modjeski, whose RM-9 was my first tube amplifier, purchased more than 20 years ago and still running; and Nelson Pass, whose class A amplifier designs have been a staple of high-end audio, and who has made a number of his designs available to hobbyists, along with lucid essays about how they work. Nelson is also an active participant in the diyaudio community, with his own Pass Labs discussion area.

In recent years, Siegfried Linkwitz has also been one of the elder statesmen of the audio game, sharing his insights as an engineer, musician, and speaker designer. His open baffle speaker designs always sound good, and his insights into speaker design combine a deep appreciation of music with a lifetime of electronic engineering and acoustic skills. Sadly he died earlier this year. His influence on the group was profound, and a number of the speakers this year spoke of his legacy and friendship.

The photos below show mostly the equipment on display. Other pictures will no doubt be posted at diyaudio.com in due course.